Trapped

Shaurya, a dedicated call centre employee, has grand plans to elope with his girlfriend Noorie, who is facing an arranged marriage with someone else. In a flurry of excitement, he decides to move into a new flat just a day before their escape, unaware that it will lead to a nightmare. The apartment he chooses is situated in a high-rise complex that is largely unoccupied due to ongoing construction and legal disputes. Unfortunately for Shaurya, the security guard at the building remains oblivious to his presence, and Noorie, too, is unaware of his new address.

As morning breaks, Shaurya finds himself accidentally locked inside the apartment, and his initial attempts to break free lead to frustration. Compounded by faulty wiring, he is plunged into darkness when the circuits trip, and when his phone dies, he is utterly cut off from the outside world. Struggling to cope without essential resources—food, water, and electricity—Shaurya’s situation becomes increasingly dire. His mental state deteriorates as the days roll on; claustrophobia begins to grip him, pushing him to desperate measures. In a moment of despair, he even resorts to using his own blood to write “help” along with his address on a piece of cardboard, which unfortunately falls onto a nearby terrace.

Meanwhile, the resident of that house, Swati, sees the note but gets misled by the watchman, who insists that the building is vacant. Although Swati is curious enough to investigate, she ultimately chooses not to pursue it any further. As Shaurya’s search for sustenance drives him to eat whatever he can find—cockroaches, ants, and even pigeons—he finds himself talking to a rat for solace. Just when things start to seem hopeless, heavy rains grace the area, allowing Shaurya to collect precious water in any available container. He manages to last nearly a week, but the toll of starvation, dehydration, and the weight of isolation takes a brutal toll on his health.

In an act of sheer desperation, Shaurya resorts to sawing through the locked balcony gate with a metal sheet. His perseverance pays off as he successfully makes his way down five floors, teetering at the edge of a precipice several times due to sheer exhaustion before reaching a level that offers no balcony gates. Finally free from the prison of his apartment, he collapses from fatigue and is swiftly rushed to the hospital.

A week later, the world he once knew comes crashing down as Noorie visits him, only to reveal that she has married someone else, thinking Shaurya had abandoned her. Heartbroken and emotionally scarred from his ordeal, Shaurya struggles to reintegrate into his previous life, only to realize that the friends and colleagues he thought would notice his disappearance are far too absorbed in their own lives to even notice he’s been gone.

Last Updated: November 07, 2024 at 23:59